Two-minute rule

Have you ever tried to start a new habit? But you find yourself procrastinating and not moving through with it?

I know I’ve been there. 

What I am sharing with you tonight is not something that I came up with, it’s something I read last night in a book entitled: Atomic Habits. 

James Clear, (the author) writes of one of the most famous dancers of all time...Twyla Tharp. Twyla said that she begins every day of her life with a ritual. She wakes up at 5:30 A.M., puts on her workout clothes and walks outside to hail a taxi. When she gets in the Taxi she tells the driver to take her to the Pumping Iron gym at 91st Street and First Avenue, where she works out for two hours. 

Twyla writes: “The ritual is not the stretching and weighty training that I put my body through each morning at the gym; the ritual is the cab. The moment I tell the driver where to go I have completed the ritual.” 

“It’s a simple act, but doing it the same way each morning habitualizes it - makes it repeatable, easy to do. It reduces the chance that I would skip it or do it differently. It is one more item in my arsenal of routines, and one less thing to think about.”

How awesome is that?? It’s not the workout that is the habit but the action that she takes in order to get to the gym every day. I know when I try to make new habits I often try way to hard at first and oftentimes I don’t follow through with it.

When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do. You’ll find that every habit can be scaled down into a two-minute version.

“Read before bed every night” becomes “Read one page.”

“Do thirty minutes of yoga” becomes “Take out my yoga mat.”

“Study for class” becomes “Open my notes.”

“Fold the laundry” becomes “Fold one pair of socks.”

“Run three miles” becomes “Tie my running shoes.” 

What you will start to train yourself to do, is that by doing these things over and over again you are going to discover that you mine as well make the most of it right? If it’s something you do over and over again, you might as well do the things that you set out to do. That is where it becomes natural.

If I read one page every night...I will want to read a chapter...then I will want to finish the book...then start another...

What we should really focus on is finding is a “gateway habit” that naturally leads you down a more productive path. 

Putting in your running shoes becomes walking ten minutes...then walking ten thousand steps...then running a 5k...then running a marathon.

The point is to master the habit of showing up. 

I would encourage you all that whenever you are struggling to stick with a habit, you can employ the two-minute rule. It’s a simple way to make your habits easy. 

No one else

No one else can add to what Jesus did to save us; our past, present, and future sins are all forgiven, and Jesus is with the Father as a sign that our sins are forgiven. 

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to interceded for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

As our high priest, Christ is our advocate, the mediator between us and God. He looks after our interest and intercedes for us with God. Christ’s continuous presence in heaven with the Father assures us that our sins have been paid for and forgiven.

This assurance frees us from guilt and from fear of failure. If you are Christian, remember that Christ has paid the price of your sins once and for all. 

God knows your efforts

Being completely honest with you here...I think one of the most difficult things sometimes for believers and doing the right thing over and over again but there never seems to be an award. I specially remember times when I started growing in my faith pretty intensely and my friends would be talking about things I would normally participate in and I wouldn’t join them. I remember it was hard for me but I was so proud. It was hard to feel like it was worth it because everything seemed the same besides me not fitting in as much. 

As believers it’s easy to get discouraged, thinking that God has forgotten about us. But God never will.

“God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.” (Hebrews 6:10)

God is never unjust. He never forgets or overlooks our hard work for him. Presently we may not be receiving rewards and acclaim, but God knows our efforts and love and ministry. 

I would encourage you as you begin the week to keep on furthering the kingdom of God. Keep being obedient and keep doing things that would please God. As hard and as presently unrewarding it might be, God will never overlook it. 

God won’t ever forget all the good that we do. Stay encouraged! 

Reverent submission

“NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS LORD.”

“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” (Hebrews 5:7)

When Jesus was preparing to face death he was in great agony. Jesus cried out to God asking to be delivered. He was prepared to suffer humiliation, separation from his Father, and death in order to do God’s will. 

Fearing death, Jesus was still obedient because he wanted to obey God. How often do we bow out or give in when we face trails, or difficulties on daily basis?

At times we will undergo trails, not because we want to suffer, but because we want to obey God. 

There are going to be things that you are faced with in life that will be trails because of our faith in God. We have endure those out of obedience and belief in what God has promised us. We must let Jesus’ obedience sustain and encourage us in times of trail. 

We can face everything knowing that Jesus is with us. 

My challenge and what I hope you get out of this post is to understand that we are going to suffer. It’s inevitable that we will spend time suffering on earth before we spend forever in heaven. We we are facing things that we feel like we can’t get through we must remember this: not my will, but yours Lord.

The Word isn’t dead

The word of God is fully active. It’s not just words in a book. I believe that too often we treat the Bible like just some other book, which is so insulting. It might look like another book because there is a cover, there are pages, and there are words in it, but it doesn’t act like one. 

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12-13)

You see...the word is living, life-changing, and dynamic as it works in us. 

God’s word reveals who we are and what we are not. 

It penetrates the core of our moral and spiritual life. 

It discerns what is within us, both good and evil. 

The demands of God’s Word require decisions. We must not only listen to the Word; we must also let is shape our lives. 

If you are at a time in your life where it’s easy to downplay the Word of God, I hope this post encourages you to not take it for granted. I used to downplay it. All the time. I think for a solid two years in college the Word of God was just another book to me. I knew it was significant and extremely important but I just kept putting it off. Until I made a commitment to really dive into the Word of God I never really understood the significance. I encourage you to dive in. Commit! Be a part, and take full advantage of something that is living, life-changing, and dynamic. 

I promise you won’t regret it. 

Today I will

Way too often I feel as believers we prolong action in our faith. For example: Tomorrow I will start reading my bible daily. Next week I will start to pray more. Tomorrow I will start to pray before I go to bed. Next time I see someone in need I will help them. Etc.

I am 110% guilty of this. There are always times that I want to keep putting things off because our relationships with Christ aren’t something where we receive instant gratification. I know that Christ isn’t going anywhere so I always think I have time to wait and put things off. 

But what I have learned this morning is that we must encourage one another on a daily basis. 

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that no none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. (Hebrews 3:13)

What actually ends up happening is that the more we continue to put things off the more we are alone in our sin. 

But God can give us new hearts, new desires, and new spirits. 

To prevent wanting to keep pushing things out, or waiting, we must stay in fellowship with other believers. We need to talk daily about our mutual faith, and be aware of the deceitfulness of sin, and encourage each other with love always. 

Today I encourage you to get started. If you read this and you feel as if your heart strings are being pulled, don’t wait any longer. Sit down and open the word today. Call or text a friend who you want to talk about your faith with. Don’t ever have a fear that everyone is doing this well. We all struggle and we are all not perfect. But I will tell you this, there is not a better time to take action than today. 

T.I.M.E

Do you pay close and careful attention to the smallest details in your life? Or do you just run a million miles an hour all the time and never step off the treadmill?

I know when I don’t step off the treadmill of life, I find myself less thankful and I also find myself more unaware of all the things that God is doing in my life. Every morning when I wake up it’s like putting on my running shoes to get on the treadmill. I have lots of things I want to get done and very little time to lallygag around. 

I believe it’s incredibly important to develop a routine where you are proactive and make sure you are really taking a step back and paying close attention to what is going on around you. 

Time has energy and places have memories. 

The best way that I have discovered to help me pay closer attention to what is really going on in my life is having a fulfilling morning routine. 

I have recently become a huge fan in Jay Shetty who just wrote the book Think Like a Monk. In the book he talks about a morning routine that consists of four necessary things we should do in order to prepare us for our day. 

He refers to this morning routine as T.I.M.E. 

Now a morning routine is a lot like putting on armor for battle. When you do your morning routine, when unexpected things happen to you during the day you are better equipped to handle them. If you don’t do your morning routine, it’s like not putting on the armor for battle. 

So everyday we need to make sure we put on our armor. 

(T) thankfulness 

Every morning we should really take time to thank God for all of the things that we are thankful for. When we do this, we cannot make it generic. We can’t just thank God for the sky being blue. We have to really describe in depth what we are thankful for and the reasons we are thankful for those things. For example, I am incredibly thankful for the people that I work with because they encourage me, make me feel special, and push me to become the best version of myself on a daily basis. 

(I) insight 

We need to take some time out of our morning to really dive into something that will provide us with some insight. Whether it’s listening to a podcast, reading a devotional, or bettering your knowledge about something that you really care about. Making sure that you are providing yourself with some insight is key to how you start to think and perceive the day ahead. Again, for me what I do is listen to a podcast and lately I have really been into the Ed Mylett podcast. 

(M) mediation

Prayer/mediating is huge. We need to make sure we take some time out of our morning routine where we are really stepping back and being completely at peace. I do this when I take my morning walks. To me, there is no better way to feel complete at peace and relaxed then when I am taking a nice 15 minute walk in the morning.

(E) exercise

I can’t stress the importance of this enough. We need to exercise on a daily basis. Whether it’s for 5 minutes or 15 minutes. There is no better way to implement healthy habits than by exercising. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy either. You could take a walk, do some yoga, or pull up your favorite workout from home YouTube video. For me, I watch the anabolic aliens workout channel. I can find a 5 minute workout that really gets me feeling energized in the brief time I spend doing it. The past couple months, with working from home has been such a blessing. I am able to carve out about 50-70 minutes to workout on a daily basis and that’s helped me so much with just how I feel both physically and mentally.

Why have a routine like this? Having a routine like this allows you to take a step back and to pay close attention to all that God is doing in your life. This is important because God is always doing something in your life and is always at work. The more that we take a step back and pay attention to those things, the more aware we are of the power of God. 

“We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” (Hebrews 2:1) 

We have to pay attention our we will just continue to drift away on this busy and crazy thing we call life.